Inquire the truth of everything

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There’s nothing wrong when the mind perceives or acknowledges that ‘life is good and meaningful’ because of ‘the presence of something good and meaningful or the absence of something bad and meaningless’, or when the mind perceives or acknowledges that ‘life is bad and meaningless’ because of ‘the absence of something good and meaningful or the presence of something bad and meaningless’.

Just that the mind is still being determined by the presence and absence of ‘certain qualities of names and forms’. There’s no freedom, as there’s attachment towards the presence or the absence of certain qualities of names and forms to feel good and meaningful, or not. Even when the mind thinks and believes that ‘life is so good and meaningful’ or ‘life is so bad and meaningless’ due to ‘the presence and absence of certain qualities of names and forms’, all are subject to impermanence and selflessness. Whether it’s ‘good and meaningful’ or ‘bad and meaningless’, all and everything will pass away.

Yoga and meditation practice is to allow the mind to see things as they are, and be free. Life is just what it is, as it is. Life is neither ‘good and meaningful’ nor ‘bad and meaningless’ being undetermined by the presence or absence of certain qualities of names and forms that are subject to impermanence and selflessness.

It’s everyone’s freedom for what they think and believe, and whether they want to be free, or not.

Some minds actually enjoy the state of restlessness, enjoy being determined by all the names and forms that are impermanent and selfless, where they would find moments of calmness, joyfulness, goodness and meaningfulness from time to time during those moments of ‘life is good and meaningful’ due to the presence or absence of certain qualities of names and forms, while trying their best to avoid coming in contact with anyone or anything that they perceive/believe/acknowledge as ‘bad’, ‘negative’ and ‘meaningless’, where they believe it will bring ‘badness’ or ‘negativity’ into their life if they come in contact with certain qualities of names and forms that they believe as ‘bad’ and ‘negative’. That’s their freedom, even though that’s no freedom at all.

“We are one family. We are brothers and sisters. We need to love and be kind to one another. We need to be there to protect and stand up for each other. We won’t allow or let anyone or anything to hurt or destroy all that we love and passionate about.”

“I love you so much. Will you be mine?”

“I love you so much. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“You are so pitiful. I want to love you. I take you to my home. I will look after you and protect you.”

“I love you so much. I want you to be good, be strong and be healthy. I don’t want you to be bad, be weak and be sick. I don’t want you to leave me. I don’t want you to die.”

“I love you so much. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to be unhappy. I will make you happy. Your happiness is my happiness.”

“I love you so much. You mean so much to me. Without you, my life is meaningless.”

“I love you so much. I am kind to you. You will be grateful and appreciate my love and kindness for you.”

“I will be very disappointed and hurt if you don’t love me, or don’t appreciate my love and kindness for you.”

“I like you. I want you to be my friend and I want to be your friend. As friends, we should be like this and treat each other like that.”

“Be kind and be loving and life will be kind and loving in return.”

“I have been good and worked so hard and did my best, but still, why things are not being fair to me?”

“Everyone should be loving and passionate. It makes us feel good and happy and meaningful. It makes a better world. Without love and passion, there’s no life. Life is so meaningless without love and passion. We want the world to be filled with love and passion.”

This is ‘love and passion’.

Compassion is void of such ‘love and passion’.

Dispassion leads to compassion.

Compassion manifest as it is upon realization of selflessness, being free from egoism of attachment, identification, clinging, possession, obsession, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison, intention, expectation.

Respecting and allowing all and everyone and everything, including this body and this mind and this world of a life existence, to be what they are, as they are, regardless of all kinds of ‘relationship’ or ‘non-relationship’, ‘friends’ or ‘not friends’, ‘known’ or ‘unknown’, ‘likes’ or dislikes’, ‘agreements’ or ‘disagreements’, and all kinds of beings and non-beings with different names and forms. All are impermanent and selfless.

Just like the sun, the air, the water, the earth and the space.

Just like every single cell that forms all the different organs, sense organs, bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, joints, blood vessels, nerves, glands, skin, nails and hair that form all the different systems that give life to ‘this body’.

An open mind that is unattached towards any particular way of thinking and belief to analyze or judge everything. Letting go all kinds of subjective judgment and comparison.

Free from expectation towards everything that everything has to be/not to be in certain ways. Allowing everything to be what they are, even if the mind dislikes and disagrees with it. Being undisturbed by names and forms that the mind dislikes, disagrees with and doesn’t want.

Free from pride and arrogance or low self-esteem (they both are the same thing.)

Free from fear towards ‘religious authority’, ‘superstitions’, ‘criticism’, ‘condemn’, or ‘the truth that is not necessarily the way that the mind believes what it is or how the mind would like it to be’.

Being aware of the mind is ignorant towards the unknown, or many things that are beyond the knowledge of the mind, and is aware of the mind is functioning/perceiving/understanding everything under a particular way of thinking and belief in the mind that influence how the mind perceives, analyzes, judges, feels, acts and reacts towards all the mind perception of names and forms, which is nothing to do with the truth of what things are.

The state of the mind of calmness, quietness and purity, being free from stimulation, incorrect/corrupted thinking, restlessness and impurities.

It’s like the function of a mirror.

The mirror that is cracked/contorted, or is shaky, or is full of dust and dirt, cannot reflect the image of things as it is. The reflection of things is distorted/contorted, or blurred, or not what it is. Even though the reflection/image of things are distorted/contorted, blurred and not what it is, being reflected onto a cracked/contorted, shaky and dirty mirror, it doesn’t change the truth of the things. The truth of things is still what it is, being undetermined, unaffected, undisturbed, or unaltered by the cracked/contorted, shaky and dirty mirror.

Just like a mind that is functioning under the influence of the defilement of ignorance or incorrect and corrupted thinking, or is restless, or is under the influence of egoism and impurities, cannot reflect the truth of things as it is. The perception or understanding of things are incorrect, corrupted, blurred, or not what it is. Even though the perception or understanding of things is incorrect, corrupted, blurred and not what it is, being perceived under a mind that is over-powered by ignorance/incorrect or corrupted thinking, restlessness and impurity, it doesn’t change the truth of things. The truth of things is still what it is, being undetermined, unaffected, undisturbed, or unaltered by the ignorant, corrupted, restless and impure state of the mind.

And thus, all the different forms of yoga practice is to be calming, quieting and purifying the mind, to free the mind from ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, to allow the mind to reflect/see things as they are, being free from the influence of any particular worldly cultural/social/religious/spiritual/national/racial/political/educational/philosophical idea, accumulated knowledge, thinking, belief, value and practice to analyze or judge everything.

Teaching yoga or practicing yoga is nothing to do with money, ‘fees’, or ‘donation’. No one can sell or buy yoga, or peace, or compassion, or wisdom, or liberation from suffering with any amount of money, or ‘fees’, or ‘donation’.

Meanwhile, running ‘yoga classes’ or ‘yoga courses’ that involve a lot of expenses/maintenance/labour/management/coordination requires money in the form of ‘fees’ or ‘donation’ for it to be happening. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if the money received is in the form of ‘donation’, it means ‘non-commercialized yoga’ or ‘authentic yoga’, or if the money received is in the form of ‘fees’, it means ‘commercialized yoga’ or ‘inauthentic yoga’. Such a simple understanding, but due to ignorance, many minds/people do not understand this.

Yoga classes/courses based on ‘donation’ without requesting a specific fees are not necessarily pure and authentic, or it’s being free from any form of ‘corruptions’. While yoga classes/courses required specific amount of fees are not necessarily impure, inauthentic, or corrupted.

People would perceive ‘yoga classes’ based on ‘donation’ or ‘small amount of fees’ that they think is ‘appropriate’ or ‘acceptable’ as ‘authentic yoga’ conducted by ‘compassionate’ yoga teachers, while ‘yoga classes’ required ‘certain amount of fees’ that they think is ‘inappropriate’ or ‘unacceptable’ as ‘inauthentic yoga’ conducted by ‘money minded’ yoga teachers.

Yoga students come to the yoga teacher to study yoga and seek guidance from the teacher and they give some fees/money to the teacher to support the teacher’s living is nothing to do with ‘commercial’ or ‘inauthenticity’. It’s like grown up working children give their parents some money regularly to support their parents’ living, there’s nothing wrong and nothing commercial. It’s a form of love, kindness, generosity, sharing, gratitude and gratefulness, even though the parents bring up the children out of love, without expecting anything in return. If the children grown up and are working, but only want to keep all that they earn for themselves, for they own living enjoyments and social expenses, and they refuse to support their own parents’ living, or those who are grown up but are lazy to work or spent all their earned money on non-essential things and enjoyments, couldn’t support their own living and need to depend on other people’s charity for living, not to say to support their parents’ living, then that is something ‘absurd’.

Many people who only want to pay very little ‘fees’ to attend ‘yoga classes’ or who prefer to attend ‘free yoga classes based on donation’ would think and expect that ‘yoga teachers’ should all be beggars to beg for donation, food, clothing and shelter on the street while giving ‘yoga classes’ for free or on donation basis. This type of ‘yoga classes’ is most probably unwittingly empowering ‘ignorance’ and supporting ‘corruption’, supporting people who would spend money generously on their personal worldly indulgence/enjoyment/social life activities, but would think and believe that it’s ‘wrong’ or ‘inappropriate’ to pay certain amount of fees to attend ‘yoga classes’ or ‘yoga courses’.There are some people who already have a good financial support for their living, where they don’t need to depend on receiving any ‘fees’ or ‘donation’ from teaching or running ‘yoga classes’ as a form of charity coming from them to other people. That’s very good, but not many people are having such financial-free living condition. Many people need to somehow ‘make a living’ to support themselves and also maybe some other people under their care. If the basic living necessity is not available, people need to be spending time and energy to ‘make a living’ in order to ‘survive’, not to say to have the spare money, time and energy to ‘organize’ charity yoga classes for people who want to enjoy cheap or free yoga classes.

Meanwhile, there are those who think and believe that they are ‘highly spiritual beings’, would perceive receiving ‘money’ in the form of ‘fees’ for conducting ‘yoga classes’ or ‘yoga courses’ as a form of ‘evilness’, ‘wrongfulness’, ‘impurity’, ‘corruption’, ‘greed’, ‘down fall’, or ‘non-spiritual’, that ‘yoga classes’ or ‘spiritual activities’ shouldn’t be ‘tainted’ by ‘money’ or ‘fees’. They don’t mind receiving ‘donations’ from anyone, but they don’t want to get involved in ‘money matters’ personally. They don’t want to be physically touching any money or keeping any money under their names, or keeping any money close to their body or their ‘spiritual practice space’, but they need some other people who look after them to handle the money in the form of ‘donation’ that support their living and all kind of expenses.

Many good people who try to be good and do good and work very hard to make an honest living in this world are not exempted from the suffering of poverty or hunger/thirst and exploitation by others. People want to enjoy cheap goods, enjoyments, conveniences and services, and that’s how all kinds of exploitation started in this world of commercialism.

People who are busy in life need the existence of the convenience and service of shops/eateries, which rely on the people who devote their time, effort, attention and money into running shops/eateries to provide the convenience and service to the people while taking the risk of running business. The existence of shops/eateries also need to depend on other people who work or run business that provide everything from farming and harvesting to transportation and providing all kinds of shop, kitchen and dining equipment, that allow the shops to put goods on their shelves for people to buy and allow the eateries to put meals on the table for the people to consume. Even though it’s a business or work involved with money transactions, but still it’s a form of ‘convenience and service’ that benefits many people. If nobody interested in taking the risk of running a business and devoting their time, energy and money into starting a shop/eatery, or if nobody is involving in farming/harvesting/transportation/providing shop, kitchen and dining equipment, or food production is not available due to any natural/technical cause, people won’t be able to enjoy such convenience and service. It doesn’t mean that any form of ‘business’ involved with money transaction is ‘non-giving to the society’ or ‘non-compassionate’.

Compassionate actions are not necessarily have to be free from any involvement with ‘money’. Even when there are some good and kind people want to help other unfortunate people in this world, they also need to gather money in the form of donation/contribution/funding from somewhere in order to help other people. Selfless actions are also not necessarily have to be free from the involvement of ‘money’, it’s about non-attachment and non-identification towards one’s actions and the fruit of the actions. It doesn’t mean that when people are working and getting some monthly salary for living, or people who run business and getting some yearly profits for living, that their action of contributing their time, energy, attention, knowledge, skill or talent into their work or business is nothing to do with ‘selfless service’. If everyone doesn’t work or run any business, this society that builds on social economy that provides all kind of conveniences and services will collapse.

Any kinds of work, or duty and responsibility towards oneself and others, or business, can turn into a form of selfless service even when there are involvement of ‘money’, if people know what is performing actions without egoism. Volunteering work doesn’t necessarily means ‘selfless service’ when it’s done with attachment and identification. Non-expectation also doesn’t mean that ‘not receiving anything in return’. As all actions will bring the fruit of actions as it is, whether people have expectation, or not. Those who are free from expectation, they allow the fruit of actions to be what it is, it’s not about ‘I don’t want any fruit of actions after I performed actions’. That is ignorant understanding influenced by egoism of ‘I want to give without getting anything in return as it’s not selfless service anymore if I am getting something in return’.

People don’t really need to attend any ‘yoga classes’, or ‘yoga courses’, or ‘yoga retreats’ to be learning and practicing yoga, or to be peaceful, compassionate, wise, forgiving and be able to let go what the world categorize as ‘bad’, ‘wrong’, or ‘hurtful’. People can be attending many yoga classes and yoga courses regularly for many years, or teaching yoga for a long time, but still, the mind is not free from ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, still being determined by worldly idea, thinking, belief and practice, and are under the influence of the desire of craving and aversion towards dualities and qualities of names and forms very much, as the mind still couldn’t go beyond the mind perception of the duality of ‘good and bad’, ‘right and wrong’, ‘positive and negative’ and ‘happiness and unhappiness, and hence, unwittingly chasing after what the mind categorizes as ‘goodness’, ‘rightfulness’, ‘positiveness’ and ‘happiness’, while rejecting what the mind categorizes as ‘badness’, ‘wrongfulness’, negativeness’ and ‘unhappiness’. The mind couldn’t see things as they are, or allow everything to be what they are, as they are. That’s nothing wrong, as the mind misunderstood the teaching of yoga about ‘positive thinking’. Many yoga enthusiasts, including ‘yoga teachers’, think and believe that it’s about influencing/making/changing everything to become ‘positive’ or ‘good’. But actually it’s merely about when the mind is over-powered by ‘negative thinking’, then the mind can cultivate positive thinking to counter negative thinking, and when the mind is free from negative thinking, there’s no need of positive thinking, as everything is just what they are, neither positive nor negative, neither good nor bad.

Although there’s nothing wrong with sincerely looking for a teacher to learn and practice yoga, to seek guidance of how to free the mind from ignorance and its by-products of egoism, impurities and restlessness – the root cause of suffering.

It’s everyone’s freedom for what they want to think, believe, behave, act and react.

The life existence of the mind perception of a worldly life of names and forms is only existing in this present moment, where the past and the future doesn’t exist in this present moment, and it is impermanent and selfless.

‘The past’ is just some scattered fading memories of pleasant and unpleasant, desirable and undesirable, agreeable and disagreeable past experiences. It exists only as a form of memory.

‘The future’ is just some wild imagination, anticipation, speculation, projection and expectation. It only exists as a form of thought activity.

When the mind is under the influence of ignorance and egoism, it attached onto the past memories of pleasant/unpleasant, desirable/undesirable, agreeable/disagreeable experiences and the anticipation/projection into the future, and be affected, disturbed and determined by ‘the past’ and ‘the future’ that doesn’t exist in this present moment, which is unnecessary if the mind is free from ignorance and egoism.

The past and the future doesn’t exist in this present moment, but there is a connection between the past actions/reactions and the present moment now, and between the actions/reactions in this present moment now and the ceaseless impermanent changes, which is the consequences of actions (cause and effect.)

The entire life existence of this impermanent and selfless existence and function of a physical body with the restless egoistic thinking mind is being what it is due to the law of cause and effect. This ‘life’ doesn’t exist if the parents didn’t plant the ‘seed’. The present moment is nothing but the consequences of the past actions, which is the only element that relates the past actions with the present moment, and yet, the past doesn’t exist in this present moment. All the consequences are just what they are, in the present moment, as they are.

The only existence is this present moment now, as it is, not necessarily the way that the egoistic thinking minds would like it to be, as the result of the ripened consequences of actions plus all the egoistic actions and reactions in this present moment that give rise to further consequences of actions, ceaselessly and restlessly, and even so, the consequences of actions are not necessarily exactly the way that the minds think and believe what it should be. The consequences of actions are just what they are, as they are, and not being the way according to any wishful thinking and belief, that anyone would like it to be.

For example, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we planted an apple tree (the past actions) that gives the fruit of apples (the consequences of actions.) Even though after some time we realize that we don’t really like apples, we cannot change the apple tree to be orange tree or banana tree. We have to accept that this is an apple tree that gives the fruit of apples. Even though we don’t like apples, but the apple tree will still give the fruit of apples. We might prefer the fruit of oranges or bananas, and we can try to plant orange and banana trees, but we can’t make the apple tree to give the fruit of oranges or bananas. Sometimes the apples from this apple tree are more sweet, and sometimes are less sweet, while some other times are sour and bitter. Although we might not like the taste of apple as it is especially when they are sour and bitter, but since these are what available to us, we can make use of the sour/bitter apples to cook them into something that is more palatable, or give them to other people who would enjoy the apples as they are, or feed them to the animals. More importantly, we don’t turn the apples into a weapon to hurt other people. Sometimes, for some reasons, the trees don’t give any fruit at all, or the trees die before giving any fruit.

If the future exists, we can bring the future into this present moment and we would be able to control the future to be exactly the way that we would like it to be. There won’t be any uncertainty/anxiety/fear/worry/dissatisfaction/disappointment/regret/guilt/unhappiness/suffering, everything will turn out to be exactly the way that we desire it to be. We want forever youth, pleasant sensations, happy feelings, good health, good relationships, good and easy life condition free from difficulties and hardships, desirable life span with only pleasurable enjoyments and happy experiences, without any painful sickness/injury, suffering or unhappy experiences, without coming in contact with happenings, objects or beings that we don’t like and don’t agree with, without separation from the beings and things that we like and love. But we can’t, as the future doesn’t exist. Without intention to be controlling ‘the future’ to be the way that we like it to be, the consequences of actions derived from the actions and reactions in this present moment now, will be what they are, as they are.

If the past exists in this present moment, then we can bring the past into this present moment and undo any past actions/experiences that we don’t like and don’t want, to alter the consequences of actions to be something different. But, we can’t undo any past actions/experiences that we don’t like and don’t want. Without intention to be changing the consequences of past actions that channeling life in this present moment being what it is, but the realization of selflessness allows the mind to be undetermined by life being what it is, transcending all the pleasant and unpleasant, desirable and undesirable consequences of actions.

Those (the minds) who are not aware of this, they always hope or try to control life in this present moment and in the future to be in certain ways that they desire and not to be in certain ways that they don’t desire.

Those (the minds) who are aware of this, they deal with the consequences of actions of all kinds of pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable experiences, or what we identify as ‘life’, as it is, without craving or aversion, allowing life to be what it is, and make use of the present moment to silent the modification of the mind to transcend the mind perception of an impermanent and selfless life existence carved by cause and effect.

Life might not always being the way that we would like it to be, but we can accept life as it is, without clinging/craving/aversion towards something that is here (pleasantness and unpleasantness), without craving for something that the mind likes and desires but is not here, without aversion towards something that the mind dislikes and doesn’t desire that is here or not here. In the meantime we can make use of life as it is (regardless of easy or difficult condition/situation that exists in this present moment) to be doing something beneficial to ourselves and others in certain ways depending on how we look at it. Such as growing up without proper emotional, educational and financial support. Some people would see it as a harsh condition and use it as an excuse to do things that hurt themselves and others. While some others would turn it into great strength to overcome any difficulty or challenging condition and situation to be doing something great for themselves and others.

In the end when the mind realizes selflessness, life is undetermined by the separateness of ‘I’ and ‘my life’, or the quality of good and bad/meaningful and meaningless/positive and negative, and it doesn’t belong to ‘I’ or ‘God’. It’s just life as it is, as a product of cause and effect. There’s no ‘I’ and ‘my life’. There’s no ‘good, meaningful and positive life’ and ‘bad, meaningless and negative life’, or “I or ‘God’ want my life to be or not to be in certain ways.”